The patching does make it hard to listen to local traffic as far as trouble dispatches on the "Ops" talkgroups for each district. The communications are usually between one of the four "DOC's" (Distribution Operations Centers) and the troublemen. When the talkgroups are patched I don't here anything on the local talkgroup, but it may not be the same down south. Most districts in the south of the service area use troublemen who respond to multiple districts. Up here on the "right side" of California the District maintenance people are also troublemen as well.
I've set up two scan lists in my PSR-600, one that includes all the known talkgroups, and one with local stuff only. Even though I don't hear the local talkgroup very often, listening to the local substation provides notification of something being wrong. Once the troublemen respond to a problem all the communications are between the sub and the troublemen on the substation talkgroup. While you might miss the initial dispatch, you will hear about anything that requires shutting off a circuit or portions of a circuit. The substation talkgroups are not patched, not at least up here. I've also monitored the system while visiting family down south and it seems the operations are the same down there as well.
Another thing I've done is to listen intently when communications with the substation occur. There are names for every circuit and I first learned the name of the one I'm on so I could track outage progress. In the wind, snow, and lightning up here this occurs more often than it does in the city and southern rural areas. I've also taken bike rides around town and drives outside of town looking for connections between circuits. The poles will often have the name of the circuit on them at these points.
Some very good submissions to the SCE information in the database have been made recently. The best in 5-6 years. Finally we can match a number with a district name, system wide. I just figured out all the construction talksgroups and will be making a submission with those soon. If they will post them I have exact locations of about 3/4 of the subs labeled on a topo map program. That information will help you find the substation you are most likely on. If you PM me with a location, I can probably narrow down your substation to 1-3 of them.
Bottom line, listen to your substation!